His opinion differs from bandmate Phil Collen – last month the guitarist argued that the only reason the British veterans were being honored was because the Rock Hall were “running out of people to put in there.” Their induction takes place at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on March 29 alongside Stevie Nicks, Roxy Music, the Zombies, Radiohead, the Cure and Janet Jackson.

Asked by the Atlantic City Weekly if Def Leppard’s selection meant that respect was being paid to the hard rock of the ‘80s and early ‘90s, Allen said, “I hope so. I think it was an important time for music. … [W]e just grew up in a fantastic time for music.” He continued, “To see the ‘80s being, you know, sort of paid attention to, to me, is really special because I think a lot of great music came from that time.”

The band won the class of 2019 fan vote in December, which added one additional count to the votes polled from Hall of Fame members. While Allen admitted he wasn’t sure how the counting system worked, he said it was "really special” to have seen so many fans participate. “They’re the ones that come to the concerts,” he noted. “I doubt everybody out there that decided on whether we were going to be in the Hall of Fame, I doubt whether all of them have even been to one of our concerts. But when you go to a Def Leppard concert and you see the reaction, you experience the reaction of Def Leppard fans, then you go, 'Wow.' This is really cool, very special and I’m just happy that so many people came out and voted for us.”

He added that the band still hadn’t decided on what they’d be playing during the induction ceremony because the award had been confirmed towards the end of an exhausting tour. “By the end of that whole run, we were really ready to go home,” he recalled, “and we weren’t necessarily in the right head space to start talking about what we were going to do for a particular performance. But having said that, I’m sure I’m going to start seeing emails coming through and people making suggestions about how we do this.”